McLaren says Norris’s Interlagos lead let it react to rivals’ tyre calls

McLaren says the lead Lando Norris built at Interlagos let the team respond to rivals’ tyre calls when rain returned, rather than take risks itself. That mattered at a circuit the team says usually rewards race pace more than track position.

The track dried unevenly after the morning rain. Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz switched to slicks at the end of lap 14; Hamilton’s pace on them prompted McLaren to pit Norris and Oscar Piastri for softs on lap 16. Norris passed Kimi Antonelli after the Mercedes driver made a mistake at Turn 1, then stretched his lead to five seconds by lap 30 and 10 by lap 40.

More rain was forecast around lap 55, leaving McLaren to choose between fitting fresh softs and extending the existing set. Verstappen was the first front-runner to pit for another set, on lap 43. McLaren studied his pace before stopping Norris on lap 49. The stop dropped Norris to fourth, around 10 seconds behind the leader with 20 laps remaining; the team said he was lapping around 1.5–2.0 seconds faster than the cars in front.

When the rain worsened, George Russell and Liam Lawson pitted for intermediates on lap 61. McLaren says their first-sector times confirmed the switch was working, so it called Norris and Piastri in immediately; the other front-runners followed. The order held over the final nine laps, and Norris won by 14 seconds. Piastri finished sixth; McLaren said he might have taken fifth had Russell’s decision to stay out not paid off.